


Though The Strategy's Subtle, Leaving Nothing To Chance

by Biromantic_Nerd



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: AU, AU where Azula's planning on overthrowing Ozai as Fire Lord, Alternate Canon, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Azula (Avatar)-centric, Complete, Do not post to another site, Episode AU: s02e08 The Chase, Episode: s02e08 The Chase, Gen, Manipulation, Not Canon Compliant, One Shot, POV Azula (Avatar), do not copy to another site
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-13
Updated: 2020-11-13
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:54:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27548647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Biromantic_Nerd/pseuds/Biromantic_Nerd
Summary: Her brother's face breaks suddenly like pottery smashed upon the ground and gives way to the destruction of hope.Oh Zuzu,she thinks pityingly,you really should have learned by now to not be this gullible.But it's a lesson he won't ever have to learn now that he's in her grasp. No one else will be able to wield his naivety now that she has taken ownership of it.(Or, an Azula-centric character study that takes place in an AU where Azula has always intended to overthrow Ozai; takes places during 'The Chase' in the ATLA timeline)
Relationships: Azula & Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 16
Kudos: 103





	Though The Strategy's Subtle, Leaving Nothing To Chance

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of an AU idea I had where Azula plans to overthrow Ozai as Fire Lord. I hadn't planned on actually writing it (but got inspired while contemplating morality and tumultuous sibling dynamics while trying to write for The Untamed??) and so while I managed to finish this as a oneshot, it is just a snippet of a much larger idea. 
> 
> Noticeably in how a lot of Azula's POV mocks the ideas of sentimentalism and friendship but the AU was intended as a character exploration + character redemption that ideally would have delved into the complexity of her disdain for such things even as she secretly values them. So this oneshot probably feels like an incomplete character study of her because it lacks that depth. So it's a snippet - but it's also a complete oneshot because I'm not actually writing this AU. 
> 
> **Heavily episode based!** Like specifically this focuses on the scene in the abandoned city of Tu Zin during 'The Chase'
> 
> Also, Azula mainly refers to Zuko as 'Zuzo' in her internal dialogue and that's because she's kind of in a gloating mood.

Despite what she implies to them, Azula doesn't choose Mai and Ty Lee because of some silly sentiment. The basis of their alliance is founded with the deep roots of the elite connection between them of having attended the same prestigious girls' academy, that is true, but it is in the end only _one_ factor which decides them to be the best choice for comrades. Having grown up together due to connections and the shared days of youth spent together in her family's court because Azula had so commanded them to be there? That is a trivial reason. Friendship is something Ty Lee may prattle on and on about but is inconsequential in reality. No, their past isn't why Azula ties them together once more in the present: it's their loyalty. 

Azula is no fool; she knows fully the value of loyalty. Mai and Ty Lee may hold silly sentimental notion of why she has turned to them for their aid but loyalty is a factor far, far too immense to not regard properly into equations. Their loyalty is something far more valuable than something as pithy as a shared connection during childhood. Connections can be fostered. Loyalty can be _encouraged_ with some incentive - and outright bought or threatened, if need be - but it can never truly develop in that same way it does when it happens organically. 

Take a look at her brother for example. His loyalty to their Father never does waiver. Not when their Father decides that Zuko is the _expendable_ one - though that never does manifest into any action taken due to _that woman_ , Azula's certain, _protecting the only child that woman cared about_. Even in the face of Father ordering her brother to chase the remnants of a myth thought to have been wiped out from the face of the planet, Zuzu hadn't wavered. And now, even while banished and branded as a traitor the the Fire nation, her brother still seeks to claim the Avatar and bring him to their Father. He perhaps doesn't even realize there's the option of not doing so. Because Zuko is _loyal_ \- and _ever_ so gullible, which is a fun combination to manipulate. Their Father doesn't utilize this naivety nearly enough; Azula however will. Their Father disregards Zuko's naivety as weakness - which it is - but unlike herself he fails to realize that it is also can be an asset. An asset to herself of course, not at all one to her poor brother. 

Loyalty: it's an important trait in allies and in pawns. But Azula has many allies who are loyal. Loyalty is not _precisely_ what differentiates Mai and Ty Lee from the rest of her allies. Isn't what separates them into a different class than how her brother is loyal to their Father. 

Loyalty is incredibly useful but if it cannot be wielded aptly, then there's no point to such a device. Mai and Ty Lee can be implemented effectively for one very simple reason and one reason alone: neither Mai nor Ty Lee are a firebender. Obviously they are more than capable in other forms of offense otherwise they would be useless to her and Azula doesn't keep useless things. But the glory of wielding these two is that it doesn't matter how skilled they may be. In the eyes of her Father, the fact that they are not firebenders makes them useless. Should he discover whom it is exactly that Azula has brought with her as aid in capturing the traitors and the Avatar, then he will fail to see a threat. As an explanation of his own hubris' creation, Father will see some silly sentimental reason for choosing them that resides like the perfect disguise of upper class girls reconnecting with each other. Intricate porcelain masks crafted with such devoted care that any who examine it might mistake it for the faces of three young girls instead of the three deadly fighters that they truly are. 

To take elite firebenders with her, now that might give her Father _ideas_. Some mistaken notion that, perhaps, her loyalty to the current Fire Lord should be taken into question. But Azula _has not_ brought elite firebenders as her entourage. In fact, she hasn't brought any. This can be viewed as a display of her talent, the lack of need to equip any bender in a match against her brother, her Uncle, _or_ the Avatar; and, if one stops to think - which Azula knows all too well that people do in war - it can be interpreted as a display of loyalty to her Father. A devoted entourage of firebenders that are loyal to her? If one cares to examine that too closely, now that can be taken as disloyalty, as the intent of a coup. Non-benders do not pose such a threat. Her loyal entourage instead becomes Princess Azula and her attendants. 

And Azula knows all too well that loyalty is a factor not to be underestimated. Loyalty brings allies and wins wars; disloyalty brings death. It's a very simple concept, really. Pity that her brother never has seemed to learn to wield it properly. Neither, it seems, has their Father. 

After all, Zuzu's loyalty to the current Fire Lord has gotten him banished and decreed traitor to the throne. If he were _smarter_ , he'd realize that his loyalty to Father is misplaced and that it would be far more strategically sound to place his loyalty _elsewhere_. 

Fire Lord Azula has _such_ a pretty ring to it; she's sure Zuzu will agree. Mai and Ty Lee do, of course. She's never had to ask; if they didn't agree, then she would force them. It wouldn't be hard but it'd be such a pain to have to reestablish the organic feeling to their loyalty after having enforcing it like hot iron wrought upon their ties until it once again formed comradeship. 

* * *

The stand off comes to a halt when she feigns surrender. Her brother doesn't know what to do when faced with this impossibility. Likewise, the Avatar and his group should know better to realize that she would never really surrender but haven't learned this lesson yet. They falter because they consider themselves too good to attack someone who's surrendering. Zuzu falters because he understands that surrender from Azula is impossible and to drop his defense would be idiotic. But still he doesn't press the offense because even as he knows she isn't - cannot be - surrendering, he believes too much in honor and would never disrespect someone who is surrendering by attacking, would never disrespect himself in such a way. It also doesn't hurt his case that he must have doubts about attacking her upon how deeply he failed at doing so the _last_ time they had met. Their Uncle had been the one to rescue him and without him, poor Zuzo can't keep up with her. And Iroh is seemingly not here; only Azula can see the approaching shape of him on the horizon line. He'll be here but of course her brother doesn't know that and his caution is frankly merited in many, many different ways. Of course it could be sentiment that's holding his hand. It'd be pathetic but that too she can use to her advantage. 

"Father has decreed you and Uncle as traitors." This isn't new information to any intelligent person but the group of peasants still looked surprised by this statement. But she isn't here _just_ for them and these words are aimed elsewhere. 

Her brother knows this, he must. She's _told_ him such upon that first encounter. He must have believed her then, seeing as he now is dressed in Earth green peasant cloth and his phoenix tail is long since shorn and regrown as short hair that covers the entirety of his scalp. But he still looks delightfully wounded by this. His mouth falls like the breath's been punched out of him. He turns his face away and glares down at the ground, as if by simply not looking he can brace himself against words already spoken. He makes a most tragic figure. She hums lowly, pleased at this result, while the Avatar and his peasants shift uneasily without dropping their upraised hands. 

Her voice is artfully kind. "I, however, have decided to offer clemency."

"What's the catch?" Zuzu sneers, having learned to at least ask this much apparently from his last time he'd been fooled by her. Ah. So either Zuzu isn't quite that naive or their Uncle is good for _something_ after all. She glances to their Uncle as he arrives, as if for the first time noticing his approaching presence though she's never let _any_ of them out of her sight and has long since seen him arriving. Her Uncle has been walking calmly with a deep frown that only deepens as her eyes meet his directly. He's more difficult to read than Zuko, that is true, but she still knows what strings to tug in order to ensure his compliance. Let him raise ready his arm; he won't attack her. She won't allow it. It's all too easy to circumvent. 

"Family is important," Azula lies and then adds this truth, "And these days it seems to be _quite_ the limited resource." 

Her brother clenches his fists but not even a flame trickles out; she can't quite tell if he's incapable of even that or if he is for once showing some restraint. His voice is low, is angry. "What makes this time different?" He clearly distrust her but wants so desperately to believe her. She perhaps should not have tried to follow their Father's orders of detaining him but her dethronement plans at that time hadn't then included any need for Zuko at all. She doesn't _need_ him now but she can certainly see the strategic value of holding the technical current heir to the Fire throne malleable in her power - especially one such as her naive brother who will follow and obey so beautifully to his dying days of whomever holds his loyalty to command. Absolute obedience like that? Of course she wants it for her own gain. 

" _Brother_ ," Azula says with a weighted meaning as if familial ties mean anything to her - she sounds remarkably patient in her opinion - and even goes to the effort of offering a smile to her dimwitted brother as a further obvious sign of good faith. "You should be thanking me for my benevolence, not hesitating to accept it. Is it your pride that's stopping you? Funny - I didn't think you had any left." The sharp jab won't help his temper but it will aid in reducing his distrust of her. Lay on her act of kindness too much and his suspicions will seem plausible; throw in some acidity and her brother will be more apt to think that her offer is genuine. Which it is a genuine offer, just not one created for any of the sentimental reasons she's claiming. As expected, Zuzu wavers in confusion. His eyebrow lowers as he takes in the sharp tone and aggressive comment, something that _surely_ she wouldn't have said if she'd been trying to manipulate him, now would she? 

Their Uncle speaks for the first time and Azula's smile carefully freezes in place instead of showcasing how this annoys her. "Zuko." It is a warning - but interestingly enough, not a warning for her. Perhaps their Uncle thinks she's beyond reasoning with and so instead turns to appeal to Zuko. Or perhaps he just _knows when he's outmatched._

For that's his mighty defense? Just the one word? Ha! Azula will do better. "Zuko," She says to match Uncle and takes a small bit of satisfaction in the way both Zuzu and their Uncle immediately focus all of their attention on her _as they should_. "Family ought to stick together... don't you _agree?_ " 

The open yearning that blooms on Zuzu's face is disgustingly blatant even though he looks to the ground in a pathetic attempt to hide it. "What made you change your mind?" His voice comes out as a rasp composed of hurts gained long ago and tentative hope; Uncle's frown of skepticism towards her folds into oh so obvious worry at the sound of his _beloved_ nephew being so distressed, worry at the sound of his beloved nephew considering the offer of his reviled niece. "What about - " He cuts himself off and turns his head away even though it is still aimed towards the dirt, as if needing to again distance himself further from facing her and now from facing the words he is speaking. His steady hand braced to firebend lowers slightly. A mistake Azula would never make but it is more beneficial to her plans to show him mercy now than it is to teach him better than that - even though it _would_ have been entertaining to attack as soon as he had. "What about... Father?"

This is merely one of the many questions Azula has long prepared to answer. "Father has lost sight of what's _important_ ," She says so mournfully that her brother tilts his head towards her with a shy, hopeful gaze while Uncle merely frowns at her with both upraised hands as steady as a statue in the air. But it doesn't matter whether or not their Uncle believes her. She's taken that into consideration while planning. Convincing her brother is the key because where he goes, Iroh will follow. It's a simple and effective string that connects them; she'd _like_ to yank upon it harshly but instead has to gradually tug. Zuzo is a nervous creature that, when faced with uncertainty, panics and lashes out. She'll show him that there's no need to act like a wounded lynx-hare cub. Show him until he lets her bite down on the scruff of his cub's neck and lift him away, and their Uncle then can only follow if he wants to ensure the safety of his poor precious cub caught delicately and unawares in the sharp clutches of a cobra-tiger's fangs. 

She has to break her coaxing gaze away to meet the Avatar's startled eyes. Had he thought he could take a step back and that she wouldn't notice? Azula's smile curls in a way that causes the Avatar to flinch. Good. Just because she's working two fronts doesn't mean she has forgotten the peasants who have nervously been standing around, braced for a battle she's been prolonging by talking to her brother and unable to do anything until she so commanded it. They dared try to retreat while they thought she was distracted? They would learn: she never is distracted. She has, this entire time, been watching all of them carefully. Has noticed the subtle hand movement of the boy Water peasant to signal retreat but had only intervenes when someone dared to _think_ about taking action on that signal. The Avatar stays put in his place. Azula casts her eyes back to her brother, who looks more conflicted now than the angry hurt expression he'd had before. Good. 

Her brother's face breaks suddenly like pottery smashed upon the ground and gives way to the destruction of hope. _Oh Zuzu_ , she thinks pityingly, _you really should have learned by now to not be this gullible_. But it's a lesson he won't ever have to learn now that he's in her grasp. No one else will be able to wield his naivety now that she has taken ownership of it. She will use it as one of her assets and Zuko - the poor, stupid, _loyal_ fool - will be none the wiser that she is doing so. 

Their Uncle will know. She's certain he will catch on eventually to what it is she's doing. But he is too late to stop her plans. If he wanted to utilize the Crown Prince, then he should have done so by now. Azula would have - and she is now even, though technically being cast as a traitor does lay out some... _uncertainties_ on the legalities of his claim to the throne. Just enough uncertainties, in fact, that it quite suits Azula's favor. Unwavering loyalty without any threat to her position as Fire Lord. Yes, she'll wield this asset much more cunningly than her Father or Uncle failed to even consider doing. For Azula never has _just_ been powerful, she has always been _clever_. 

"Brother," Azula beckons. And foolish, gullible, _trusting_ Zuko instinctively takes a step forward with his entire aching and hopeful heart written upon his face more clear and earnest than anyone should be. But is Zuko the fool for his naive nature - or are Ozai and Iroh the truly foolish ones for not seizing this opportunity despite having all the reasonings and capability to do so? 

"Zuko," Their Uncle says again in warning like it's the only word he knows how to speak. Perhaps is trying desperately to cling on to the asset he never utilized but is now coveting when it falls into someone else's grasp. Her brother hesitates. "Consider the consequences to your actions. You know how this has turned out before." 

Azula intervenes before Zuko can. "Last time was by decree of the Fire Lord. Of _course_ I didn't want to betray you."

Her brother shakes his head. "Then what makes this time different? You said it yourself - I'm still banished." His heart is too soft, too loyal to even say the word 'traitor' aloud, hm? "And I need - I need the Avatar." He wavers, glances at the Avatar beside him like the temptation now has become far too great to bear. The Avatar's allies shift back into readier stances - the waiting having taken them slightly off guard - but they turn towards Zuko instead of Azula in a vastly misjudged assessment of who's the bigger threat. 

Ignoring the tension, benevolently Azula smiles. "Oh, _Zuko_. Not when I'm Fire Lord." 

Zuko turns away from the Avatar. " _What?_ " 

"Nephew," The Great Dragon of the West pleads as he senses Azula's victory approach. 

"Ozai won't be Fire Lord forever, you know. And - if we're being honest?" She leans forward with widened eyes like she's telling a secret even as her voice stays steady in the same cadence. "We both know that I'm rather... _impatient_." Between the significant look she gives him and by her referral of their Fire Lord and Father by his given name, even Zuko picks up on her impudence and realizes what she's implying. Both his eyes widen, though the one enveloped in scar tissue only goes so wide; the wideness, she is delighted to see, is only shock and not at all contains any disapproval. Yet. She has to move quickly. It could be a tricky predicament should Zuko recall that he is _supposed_ to be against the dethroning of their Father since he's unbearably loyal to him. But perhaps his loyalty to Azula will eclipse even that; in fact, she's counting on it for their Father never fostered this loyalty, not like she's attempting to do. "Wouldn't you like to come _home?_ " 

An audible noise knocks of out her brother's chest. It shouldn't be so easy to ensnare him with the same lure that had baited him with last time. Luckily for Zuzu, her offer _this_ time is genuine. But _really_. 

"Fire Lord Ozai sits on the throne yet," Uncle cautions his beloved nephew. His words only work to her favor. 

"Not for long," Azula reveals truthfully and basks in the success her words bring. It's worth the risk. Her brother looks to her with all of the loyalty and reverence he's shown to their Father and Uncle - and none of the horror that was a very strong possibility upon hearing her declaration to seize the throne. 

Azula's eyes sweep past her awestruck brother and land deliberately on her horrified Uncle and then upon the hesitant, curious group who have all been witness and are taking this in. The enemy of one's enemy is an ally - and she has just declared herself as enemy to the Fire Lord. The Avatar and his group would be fools to not even consider siding with her in comradeship. And even if they do not, at the very least they will refuse to _help_ the current Fire Lord and thus will never inform him of her treasonous words and plans. Not that they even could do so without being captured, imprisoned, or killed. 

The dawning comprehension on her Uncle's face is amusing. It's only now that he is beginning to realize that she has _planned_ this. He's only now realizing that the niece he cast off as useless and unimportant is more important and powerful than he'll ever be. She is a strategist he thought he'd understood the limits of but she's beaten him long before he knew this even began. Uncle eyes her - aghast and disturbed like he's always been by Azula but only now is understanding the depths to which she is, the depths to which he must be aghast and disturbed anew when he'd never _truly_ known anything to be be aghast or disturbed _by_ \- while the Avatar and his allies view her with newfound consideration as their hands lower from their aim towards Zuko. And Zuzu? He stares at her with wide eyed hope and more loyalty coming out of him than a traitor to the nation ever should. 

Her Uncle closes his eyes. But that won't stop her plans from occurring and coming to fruition. It will just delay his realization of them, for a bit. The cobra-tiger's venom is slow acting but ruthlessly efficient, surely Iroh must know this. Closing one's eyes does not delay the inevitable being that is her. 

"Azula," Zuko says simply. He must have picked up this one word name habit from their Uncle. She'll break him of that habit. But for now...

"Zuko," She answers simply because this is, apparently, the one word name diction Zuzu understands. And understand he does - though _his_ soft sentimental understanding is far, far different than Iroh's horrified one. 

**Author's Note:**

> So the AU would have explored:
> 
> 1\. Azula as a complex character. But especially with a focus on her complicated interpretation that she is above needing friends/family (developed from her abandonment issues + her childhood built of encouraged violence and malice) yet she still wants those relationships in her own way. 
> 
> 2\. How the dynamics would have been if Mai and Ty Lee didn't ever have to choose between Zuko and Azula. 
> 
> 3\. How the Gaang dynamics would have been if they (somewhat mistakenly) believed that Azula and Zuko only ever hunted them bc of the Fire Lord and that 'with Ozai gone' there would be no conflict between them. Azula would deliberately manipulate them to believe that they 'would not be enemies if she were Fire Lord' all while using the Gaang to cause Ozai further political unrest in a guise of 'being allies' 
> 
> 4\. How Zuko would react with a family member who indirectly claims to value him above even the Fire Lord by refusing to turn him into Ozai and instead recruits/protects him. (Which Iroh does but Zuko feels that Iroh didn't have a choice like Azula did + Azula is 'straightforward' about doing it while Iroh hides behind proverbs and actions so Zuko interprets it differently)
> 
> I didn't have a plan to how Azula takes the throne - or even when on the timeline that she does it. I just had this idea of exploring her treatment/manipulations of the people she loves but refuses to acknowledge that she loves them all while she plans a very vicious + effective coup. 
> 
> Anyways, those were my thoughts and **this oneshot is complete.**
> 
> Title: "The Night the Pugilist Learned How to Dance" by Sting. Full lyrics are: "Though the strategy's subtle, retreat and advance, It's all about attitude, all in your stance, Attention to detail, leaving nothing to chance"


End file.
